With all the talk around baseball being centered around “speeding up the game,” New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi brought up an interesting idea.
There are a ton of aggravated baseball fans reacting to the news of major league baseball’s abandonment of throwing four pitches for an intentional walk, and New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has another idea.
Listening devices.
Girardi said he would give listening devices to batters in order to receive signs and the same for pitchers and catchers in order to change signals.
That would eliminate the need for batters to step out (yes, even with one foot) and receive signs from the third base coach and also reduce the time spent on a pitcher shaking his catcher off before a pitch.
It’s just like the National Football League, where offensive coordinators or head coaches interact with the quarterback through listening devices in their helmets.
It’s hard to say whether this will speed the game up or not, but, like intentional walks, signs from the third base coach and the interaction between pitcher and catcher through hand signals have been a part of this game for as long as anyone can remember.
On that note, however, MLB has already dropped decking the catcher, taking out the shortstop/second baseman, shrunk the strike zone, implemented a pitch clock for in between innings and most recently: an automatic signal for intentional walks.
Putting a runner on second in extra innings is being tested throughout the minors and other changes are expected to come.
Whether Girardi’s idea is or will be considered is yet to be seen, but at least it’s smarter than Will Ferrel’s method of giving signs:
